Titanic Coincidences
The following text is taken directly from Uncle John’s Great Big Bathroom Reader.
The Titan/Titanic
In 1898, a short novel called The Wreck of the Titan or Futility, by Morgan Robertson, was published in the U.S. It told the story of the maiden voyage of an “unsinkable” luxury liner called the Titan. Robertson described the boat in great detail.
The Titan, he wrote, was 800 feet long, weighed 75,000 tons, had three propellers and 24 lifeboats, and was packed with rich passengers. Cruising at 25 knots, the Titan’s hull was ripped apart when it hit an iceberg in April. Most of the passengers were lost because there weren’t enough life boats. Robertson apparently claimed he’d written his book with the help of an “astral writing partner.”
Eerie Coincidence: Fourteen years later, the real-life Titanic took off on its maiden voyage. Like the fictional Titan, it was considered the largest and safest ship afloat. It was 882.5 feet long, weighed 66,000 tons, had three propellors and 22 life boats, and carried a full load of rich passengers. Late at night on April 14, 1912, sailing at 23 knots, the Titanic ran into an iceberg which tore a hole in its hull and upended the ship. At least 1,513 people drowned because there weren’t enough life boats.
The Titanian/Titanic
In 1935, a “tramp steamer” was heading from England to Canada. On watch was a 23-year-old seaman names William Reeves. It was April, the month when the Titanic hit an iceberg and went down. As the Reader’s Digest Book of Amazing Facts tells it:
Young Reeves brooded deeply on this. His watch was due to end at midnight. This, he knew, was the time the Titanic had hit the iceberg. Then, as now, the sea had been calm. These thoughts swelled and took shape as omens … as he stood his lonely watch … He was scared to shout an alarm, fearing his shipmates’ ridicule. But he was also scared not to.
Eerie Coincidence: All of a sudden, Reeves recalled the exact date of the Titanic accident - April 14, 1912 - the day he had been born. That was enough to get him to act.
He shouted out a danger warning, and the helmsman rang the signal: engines full astern. The ship churned to a halt - just yards from a huge iceberg that towered menacingly out of the night.
More deadly icebergs crowded in around the tramp steamer, and it took nine days for icebreakers from Newfoundland to smash a way clear.
The name of the ship Reeves saved from a similar fate to the Titanic’s? The Titanian.
The Luckless Towers
The stoker on the Titanic was named Frank Lucks Towers. Charles Pelegrino writes in his book, Her Name, Titanic:
Though he would survive this night (Titanic) without injury, his troubles were just beginning. In two years he’d be aboard the Empress of Ireland when it collided with another ship, opening up a hole in the Empress’ side. (Note: it was the worst peacetime maritime disaster - over 2000 lost.) It would be an unusually hot night, and all the portholes would be open as she rolled onto her side in the St. Lawrence River. In minutes she would be gone - yet miraculously, Frank Towers was going to survive - virtually alone. He’d take his next job aboard the Lusitania, (sunk by German U-Boats in 1915) and would be heard to shout “Now what!” when the torpedo struck. He’d swim to a lifeboat, vowing every stroke of the way to take up farming.
His story was destined to inspire a young writer to script a teleplay entitled Lone Survivor. The teleplay was so well recieved that it paved the way for a series. The writer’s name was Rod Sterling and the series became The Twilight Zone.
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